I arrived in Amsterdam for the first leg of my vacation. Here are some photos I snapped to day walking around:
I'm going to spend a few days here before I go an to California to visit family.
It's a bit colder here than I expected for May but it is tolerable. It's just not weather that you want spend at a sidewalk table in a Restaurant. I'm happy with my hotel room. I'm overlooking a canal and there is some afternoon sun streaming in my window. I enjoy just watching the people go by- in boats, cars, on foot and bicycle.

I'm updating this blog!

I've decided to update this blog to reflect my current situation. I live in Jakarta, Indonesia as of December 9, 2008, when I got an offer to work here. I have enjoyed living here in spite of traffic jams and terrorists. Yes, I was here when terrorists bombed the Marriott and Sheraton hotels. But there haven't been any incidents for quite a while now thank God.

Safety

The safety situation here has deteriated some. There have been a string of robberies on Victoria Island and Ikoyi, normally safe places. Criminal gangs have been hitting restaurants, small hotels and apartment buildings.
One of the buildings occupied by employees from my company has been attacked. The other day a gang came in and tied up the guards and went from apartment to apartment tying up the people before robbing them. My building has not been hit.
But other than that things are fine.
I've finally gotten Skype working so I can make cheap phone calls to the states.

Apartment in Ikoyi

Today I moved from the hotel to the Bourdillon apartments in Ikoyi, a mostly residential area of Lagos. The hotel I was staying in is on Victoria Island (or "V.I." to the locals) and Ikoyi is a bridge trip across Five Cowrie Creek. It's that bridge that might make my commute long because it's a traffic bottleneck. Ikoyi is supposed to be a nice area with several embassies and schools located here. But it's a still a colorful drive from what I've seen with local markets along the way and the occasional chicken and goat. The thing I most like about my apartment so far is that they have supplied me with an espresso maker. I'm thrilled with that because I've been subsisting on instant coffee both at the hotel and the office.
I've felt safe here so far but the Nigerian elections are coming up and I understand that raises the danger level for expatriots. I don't have a lot of time for going out anyway. Most of my time is either spent working, sleeping or travelling in between those activities. The most adventurous thing I've done so far is visiting local restaurants.

Banking trouble in Nigeria

Since I arrived in Nigeria my banking troubles began. Apparently, the first time I signed into my bank account from here the bank fraud unit shut down my online access. It has taken until today to get it sorted out. (Yes, it's really me, honest!)
And soon following that my wife received notice that our credit card was being used fraudulently. So, not knowing what was going on, we told them to cancel the cards and issue new ones.
Well, credit cards aren't much use here anyway.
But, aside from those problems, I'm starting to settle in here. I've got a car and driver now so if I want to go out I can. It's just a matter of figuring out at what times the traffic is the least insane.
I decided to check out a local shopping mall the other day after work. With traffic it took us an hour and a half to get there. The mall was very nice, modern and clean. I'll have to go back when I have more time to check it out.

I've uploaded some pictures, as promised.

Here's a local crafts shop with some unfortunate animal skins and the outdoor hotel bar, where I spend much of my off-time. The photo at the top is a street near the hotel with people selling "suya", spicy grilled chicken or beef, among other things.

Sunday

I expect to see more of the sights here in Lagos but I have to admit I enjoyed spending my one day off by the hotel pool this last Sunday. One of my favorite things anyway is to relax and read. I did a lot of that. So I've shown some pictures of and around the hotel. I did get brave and take a walk outside the hotel to look for some shops. But everything was closed for Sunday.
Our internet connection is excruciatingly slow and I don't know if I'll be able to upload pictures today.

My first post

I'll have to post here whenever I get a spare minute because I'm presently working 60+ hours per week. But I'll keep trying!

The company provided a photo of the driver that was to pick me up at the airport so that I wouldn't be conned into riding with someone with bad intentions. Unfortunately, he was an hour late. But he eventually arrived and we were off to the hotel with a police escort dodging in and out of traffic. It really speeds up the trip! But apparently the company was worried that we might be held up/mugged on the way to the hotel. That particular road is dangerous.
Lagos is safe relative to other parts of Nigeria. The really dangerous parts are in the Delta area, about 700 miles away.